Windows 7 PC Power Management Made Easy

I know we only talked about saving power and protecting the environment yesterday, but today we have to get back to that topic, because something just happen, and I had to share that with you. Fortunately, I am fine, my computer is fine, the family is just fine, but a guy that asked for advice on a forum is not. No, it’s not about his health or integrity, is simply the fact that he asked for advice, he got it, and then he finally did it his way – enough to say that he got a HD 4870 video card for a small resolution monitor and a weak CPU-mainboard couple instead of the less power hungry HD 4770…

… and so I will write something like never before – an article about a piece of software I didn’t manage to give a spin, and I won’t be able to do it in the coming weeks, either. How’s that possible? Well, it’s pretty simple – Power Plan Assistant, today’s topic, is a Windows 7-exclusive piece of code, and the only reason that really pushed me to write about it is the fact that, maybe, some of you will start using and add just a little bit to the global effort (more or less global, at least I know there are people like me everywhere, unfortunately governments are not full of such people…) made to protect the environment.

While Windows Vista has been on my hard drive for almost 2 years now, but I think I used it less than XP in a week during these years, I think I’ll switch to Windows 7 pretty soon. Obviously, I have some friends who already played with the early versions, and seeing it in action is worth reading 1,000 reviews. Why switch? Reliability, driver support, smart resource management but, more than anything else, better power management than Vista, and since I got a new video card just to save power… that’s more than enough for me!

Speaking about Power Plan Assistant, it’s enough to say that this piece of code has been specifically designed for Windows 7, and is fully compatible with all 32- and 64-bit versions of Microsoft’s upcoming OS, having native 64-bit binaries. More than just helping you save power, it also helps you work efficiently, since it can automatically switch to “High Performance” on plugging in, for example, and all the system power plans are easily accessible, not only 2 of 3, as it happens when using Windows 7’s Power icon.

Oh… did I say this program is completely free to download and use? Anyway, we’re talking about a “donationware” application, so donations are welcome, giving you a serial number that will allows you to have your own copy of the program and permanently disable the expiration date check present in the unregistered version that will force you to download new builds of the program on a weekly basis to continue using it.

All in all, I think Windows 7 PC power management can get much easier with Power Plan Assistant, be it registered or not and, more than anything, if you can save just a little power by using it, don’t hesitate – one day, some generation will probably thank us for our efforts now… or they could as well curse us, it all depends on each and everyone’s actions TODAY.